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International Church of Christ

Revolution Through Restoration

Kip McKean, in his article, Revolution Through Restoration, in the magazine UpsideDown
issue 2, said, "Only by studying the Bible and then by trial and error
implementation of these rediscovered teachings can a movement be forged like the
original". Unfortunately trial and error involves people and many have been
devastated by the implementation of these so called teachings. He goes on to say,
"Enemies and critics, Pilate's and Judass will abound, for with each
restoration of Scripture a more clear, yet narrowing and convicting path appears."

Al Baird, who is the public spokesman for this movement, was asked in an interview by
Newsnight of the BBC (London 1/5/1993), "What mistakes do you believe your movement's
made?" "Always, it was an attempt to become more and more like Jesus. That's all
we're trying to do. Now do people in that whole process get hurt? Unfortunately,
yes."

Mr. McKean states that restoration is needed since we no longer understand or live out
Gods Word. Distortions of Scripture are common. For example Luke 5:37, "the new
wine must be poured in new wine skins," interpreted as wine being the ministers, and
the wine skins being the church. This is clearly a personal opinion of a passage normally
interpreted to show the new covenant.People converted at the Crossroads, who were former
friends, resented McKeans effort to pull them into the Boston Movement. Rejecting
his restoration from the Scriptures that he and Al Baird taught, they became some of the
most verbal opponents. McKean stated that, "Those who came along later turned back in
bitterness because of the hard teachings they could not accept". McKean claims the
Boston church is the Jerusalem for Gods modern day movement. He describes this
modern revolution as the shot fired from Boston and heard around the world in the
Revolutionary War.

Although McKean has apologized for some of his initial teachings on biblical authority,
he continues with his trial and error experiments of rediscovered truths, in pursuit of
making a perfect church.

Kip McKean states in UpsideDownmagazine, Issue 11, pg. 13, August 1994:
"Revolution was and is in each step and breath of those who dare to embrace the true
church of Jesus". He goes on to say, "Recognizing that the present
denominational systems are in scriptural error, missionless, spiritless, and thus, unable
to accomplish the purposes of God". .

This is a perfect example of the downgrading being taught from their pulpits. They do
not hold back from engaging in demeaning words and phrases to put down anyone elses
work of and for God. Since one needs to be part of their church to be in Christ, it is not
surprising to hear statements such as, "We will continue to seek other isolated
disciples who may be members of false churches" (pg. 14). Who is the false church?
Anyone who is not baptized into their church.

What if one were to disagree later? Well, there is even a stronger word for those going
out then coming in. "Certainly to leave the family of God, the true church, is to
leave God" (pg. 18). "Many who depart are deceived by Satan into believing they
can be part of a church that has false doctrine, unholy lives, and still be saved"
(pg. 18).

Although there might be some areas of differing opinions in churches, on the essentials
we all agree and recognize each other as part of the body of Christ. The International
Churches of Christ do not recognize this greater unity. This is why McKean says,
"Today we are calling out of the world, calling out of denominations, out of mainline
churches, out of campus ministries, all of the people who desire to be part of Gods restored
true church and movement" (pg. 18).

"Listen, I think we're afraid of the name Christian because we've heard so much
out of the denominational world. Listen they can't spell it, let alone live it out."
(Phil Lamb, We Are Family, audio tape, 1990 West Coast Conf.)

"The Lord allowed me to begin the restoration of the New Testament Church from a
small group of thirty would-be disciples in Gempels living room in June of 1979 in
Boston" (pg. 18). So, according to McKean, there would be no true church today. Not
recognizing that God is able and is working with denominations and other churches is
divisive in itself. In my opinion, I believe we are seeing a birth of a group faction of
Christianity much like the Mormons and the Jehovah Witnesses started.

If God did not use diversity, why did He divide Israel into twelve tribes and give each
a different function for the tabernacle? Would this not be considered denominationalism by
their own standards?Some of the reasons they are not the true church or Gods
movement are because they do not teach the whole counsel of

God which Paul stated in Acts 20:27. This would be a consistent, systematic teaching
from Genesis to Revelation not just teaching on baptismal salvation or practices that
relate only to discipleship.

Statistics are continually released of how quickly they grow. Most of the people inside
the movement do not hear of the record numbers of people leaving. There is something wrong
with a revolution that has thousands regularly leaving with

total disillusionment in God and Christianity. Many speak of the same stories of
authoritarian abuses and manipulation, their loyalty to human leaders over one's loyalty
to Christ. These enormous numbers of people leaving can't be explained away as fall-aways,
those who could not continue being disciples and endure to the end.

What kind of revolution is this? Is it biblical or man centered? Does Kip McKean's
dream of evangelizing the whole world in a few years become everyone else's dream? Is God
on his time clock, in a rush to make this happen before the year 2000? What is God really
concerned with, the amount of people in a church or the quality of life that they live?

What is really being restored here? If we look at the overall picture of the New
Testament we don't see any of these unbiblical practices used in this movement. No one is
watching over how people give their money and time. There are no quotas to be filled. The
only set criteria for those who follow Jesus is to live a life of holiness, being set
apart to the Lord, to be led by His Spirit as an individual, ready to do His will when
opportunities occur.

Consider the story of Daniel Eng. He was baptized in 1976 in a mainline Church of
Christ denomination in Malaysia. In 1984 he joined the Central London Church of Christ
(Boston Movement) and was sent off in 1987 to Singapore to plant a new church. When the
church grew to 400 members the leadership then sent him to start a new church in Central
Jakarta, Indonesia in February, 1990. He was then asked to move to Bombay, India in April,
1991. After a few months he met with the Boston leadership in London, England to discuss
his concerns about certain authoritarian abuses. In June, 1991 he made the decision to
leave the movement. He was ostracized and marked, just as everyone else is who leaves the
movement. Daniel, as a leader, noticed the control others had over his life, moving from
place to place by the dictation of his leaders. In any case, this revolution of McKeans
left him empty, unhappy, depressed and confused. Many other people have been affected in
this same manner from this revolution. It can hardly be considered a spiritual revolution.

Articles are taken from the spiral bound book International Church of Christ Birth
of a Cult. (click> on books)

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